Plea for Pauls Presbytery in Scotland, To the reader
To the Christian Reader.
I Am bold (reverend and Christian Reader) to appeare in print to contribute my weake judgement for the government of the Church of Scotland. In which suite I have to doe with foes and friends. To the former I speake not now, I meane Prelates, Papists and haters of the truth▪ I doubt not but I am condemned in their books of both errours and crimes, my hope to prevaile with such is small, if that be true, Damnati lingua vocem habet, vim non habet, The tongue of the condemned hath a noise of words, but no power to perswade, except this be also true, Magna vis veritatis, Truth may swim, it cannot sinke. But I speake to the godly, the lover of the Truth, the sufferer for Truth against Antichristian Prelacy, (which is but spilt Popery, or half-dyed Papistry) who possibly liketh not well of Presbyteriall government. And to such I am a debtor for love, charity, honour, and all due respect in Christ Jesus, and a seat and lodging in my heart and highest esteeme.Phil. 1 7. And to thinke of all such is both, as the Apostle saith, foreign, meet. And also (if it be beside the truth) an honest and almost innocent error. Yea and to say to every one in whom (as reverend Bucer saith) there's aliquid Christi, Bucer.any of Christs new Creation,Hier. Sophron. as Ierom said to a friend, tibi & quod possum debeo, & quod non possum, I owe to thee what I am able to doe, and more for thy good. And of these I humbly beg equity, charity, and unpartiall weighing of precious truth. I am grieved that this should bee put on mee which a Heathen laid on his friend,Seneca. Amavit patriam quia suam, non quia patriam, he loved his countrey because his owne, not because his countrey. Seeing it's weaknesse to overlove a Nationall faith, because Nationall, and not because it's faith. Truth naked and stripped of all supervenient relations is love worthy. And there is as great cause of sorrow that all the Lords people should not mind one thing, and sing one Song, and joyne in one against the children of Babel. Iob 16. 19.Neither should I feare that, animo dolenti nihil oportet credere, sorrow deserveth no faith, Since my witnesse is in heaven, and my record on high, That I both love and dispute, I contradict and I reverence at once in this Treatise,Phil. 3. 15. and shall hope, if any be otherwise minded, God shall even reveale this unto them. And it is meet so to doe, since our Physician Christ can well difference betwixt weaknesse and wickednesse, and will not have us cast one straw, before any whose face is towards Heaven, to cause them to stumble. Love hath a bosome and armes to carry the weake Lambes, and is a bridge over the River to keep the weake passenger dry footed. Dearly beloved, let us all in one Spirit, one love, one affection, joyne to build the City that is named,Ezech. 48. 35. The Lord is there. O that our Lord would be pleased to suspend the Heaven and glory of some, and that our Heaven might for a season be stayed out of Heaven, so we might live to see two Sisters the Daughters of one Father, and of one Mother, Ierusalem who is above, Britaines Israel and Iudah, England and Scotland comming together, weeping and asking the way to Sion, and their faces thither ward, saying, Come, let us joyne our selves to the Lord in a perpetuall Covenant that shall not be forgotten. And not that only (for why should the Glory of our Royall and princely King, the plant of Renowne be confined within this narrow Isle o… Britaine?) but that he would make us eye-witnesses of his last Marriage-glory on earth, when he having cast the cursed milstone Babylon in the Sea, and sowne the land of graven Images with brimstone, and destroyed Idols out of the earth, shall be espoused on our elder Sister the Church of the Jewes, and the fulnesse of the Gentiles. O that Christ would enlarge his Love bed. And O what a honour to the servants of the Lord to beare up the taile of Christ his Marriage-robe-royall, in the day of our high and royall Solomons espousals. And what a second time-Heaven were it before eternities Heaven to have a bed in his chariot, which is bottomed with gold and paved and floured with Love for the daughters of his last married Ierusalem. And who knoweth but our Lord hath now entred on that glorious Marriage-suit? Let us beleeve, wait on, love, follow truth and peace, be zealous for the Lord, and pray for the exalting of his Throne. And so I am.
Yours in all respective love and observance, S. R.